Met Police Says It Will No Longer Investigate Non-Crime Hate Incidents Following Graham Linehan Case
A victory for common sense this week as the Metropolitan Police has announced that it will no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents, in order to allow officers to “focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations”.
This comes as the Met confirmed it was dropping a probe into Father Ted creator Graham Linehan after he was arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of inciting violence in posts on X.
Linehan, 57, was arrested by five officers on September 1 after arriving on a flight from the US.
He was accused of ‘inciting violence against transgender individuals’ with his Tweets, with one reading: “If a [trans woman] is in a female-only space, [s]he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch [her] in the balls.”
Fortunately, the Crown Prosecution Service realised it was a joke and decided no further action should be taken, and now the Met feels very silly for having wasted all that time and all those resources, and not for the first time when it comes to cases where crimes have quite obviously not been committed.
As such, the Met has now put out a statement assuring it “understands the concern” of the public, and assuring they will focus on tackling actual crime from now on.
A spokesperson for the Met said: “The commissioner has been clear he doesn’t believe officers should be policing toxic culture war debates, with current laws and rules on inciting violence online leaving them in an impossible position.”
The policy change would “provide clearer direction for officers, reduce ambiguity and enable them to focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations,” the spokesperson added.
Non-crime hate incidents are alleged acts perceived to be motivated by prejudice towards people with certain characteristics, such as race or gender identity.
The reason they are recorded is to collect data on “hate incidents that could escalate into more serious harm”, but they do not actually amount to a criminal offence, according to Home Office guidance.
I can see the sense behind recording non-crime hate incidents; for example, if police are constantly being called to a neighbour dispute and believe it’s racially motivated and could escalate into something more serious. But sending five armed officers to arrest someone over a Tweet? Just embarrassing on so many levels.
We’ll now have to wait and see whether other police forces around the country follow suit, so that maybe we can spend less time arresting people for social media posts and focus more on things like shoplifting and stabbings and bike theft and whatnot. Could the UK finally be turning a corner in this regard?
For the police who turned up to a cancer patient’s home and told her to apologise for online posts or face an investigation, click HERE. Incredible.
